January 6, 2023
Zineng Tang
Senior mathematics and computer science major Zineng Tang was named a recipient of the 2023 Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. Tang was one of only four winners from colleges and universities across North America.
The Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award program recognizes undergraduate students in North American colleges and universities who show outstanding research potential in an area of computing research. The 2023 announcement recognized four winners, four runners-up, 21 finalists, and 32 honorable mentions.
Tang’s research interests are in the fields of machine learning and natural language processing. The CRA announcement wrote that Tang’s research “focuses on two main research questions: how could one perception help the learning of another, and how could different perceptions be learned jointly. One example of this is VidLanKD, where his work explores how visual data can enhance language learning. By using a teacher and student framework, the work improves upon previous results, and offers new insights into how language models can learn language beyond text.”
Tang works with John R. & Louise S. Parker Professor Mohit Bansal, who leads the MURGe-Lab, part of the UNC-NLP Group in the Department of Computer Science. Tang will continue his research in artificial intelligence and natural language processing as he pursues a doctorate in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.
Ayana Monroe
Ayana Monroe, a senior majoring in computer science and information science, was named a finalist for the award. Monroe has also worked with the Humans and Technology Lab (HATLab) at Clemson University, and her interests lie in the field of human-computer interaction.
For more information, visit the official CRA news release.